Original Article
Sandbagging and the Self Does Narcissism Explain the Relationship Between Sandbagging and Self-Esteem? Michael D. Barnett, Idalia V. Maciel, and Marley A. King Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA Abstract: Sandbagging – a self-presentation strategy defined by feigned performance or false claims of inability – has been associated with lower self-esteem. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether narcissism explains the relationship between sandbagging and selfesteem. College students (N = 813) completed a survey. Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism explained variance in sandbagging beyond what was explained by self-esteem. When grandiose or vulnerable narcissism was included, the relationship between self-esteem and sandbagging was no longer significant. Overall, the results were consistent with the notion that the relationship between lower self-esteem and sandbagging may be subsumed by narcissism. Keywords: sandbagging, narcissism, self-esteem, self-concept, fragile self-esteem
Sandbagging refers to an individual withholding initial performance effort (Kräkel, 2014), or falsely claiming inability, in order to portray themselves as weaker or more incompetent than they actually are so as to establish a low expectation baseline from their audience or opponents (Gibson, Sachau, Doll, & Shumate 2002; Petersen, 2013). Sandbagging is a self-presentational strategy (Brown, 2006; Gibson & Sachau, 2000) in which individuals understate their abilities in order to lower audience expectations, reduce personal performance pressure, or surprise others. Individuals may engage in sandbagging even when they are confident about their ability to carry out the task or when they have no apparent reason to “undersell” themselves (Gibson & Sachau, 2000), suggesting that sandbagging behavior may originate within the self – that is, serve a psychological need – rather than reflect an individual’s assessment of their ability in a specific domain.
Sandbagging and Self-Esteem Individuals with lower self-esteem tend to engage in more sandbagging (Brown, 2006; Gibson & Sachau, 2000; Petersen, 2013). This may represent a tendency for sandbaggers to genuinely convince themselves that they have lower ability as a result of constantly undermining and minimizing their strengths and successes (Gibson & Sachau, 2000). It is also possible that individuals with lower self-esteem have a negative self-concept that may drive them to offer harsher self-assessment. Individuals with low self-esteem are more Journal of Individual Differences (2019), 40(1), 20–25 https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000272
sensitive to high stress events and are more susceptible to threats to their self-esteem (Spencer, Josephs, & Steele, 1993); thus, they may engage in sandbagging behavior in order to reduce performance pressure by lowering audience expectations in order to lower their feelings of anxiety from this possible threat to their already low self-image (Gibson & Sachau, 2000). Alternatively, it is possible that the relationship between self-esteem and sandbagging is subsumed by other variables such as narcissism.
Narcissism Narcissism can be conceptualized as a category (e.g., a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the DSM-5; APA, 2013) or a trait. In this study, we focused on narcissism as a trait. Narcissism has been broken down into grandiose and vulnerable facets (Boldero, Higgins, & Hulbert, 2015; Cain, Pincus, & Ansell, 2008; Miller, Gentile, Wilson, & Campbell, 2013; Pincus et al., 2009; Wink, 1991). Narcissistic grandiosity is characterized by feelings of superiority, arrogance, a sense of entitlement, exploiting others, reactivity to criticism, and envy (Besser & Priel, 2010; Dickinson & Pincus, 2003). Narcissistic vulnerability reflects feelings of shame, helplessness, inferiority, incompetence, inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to evaluation (Boldero et al., 2015; Rose, 2002). Narcissists have fragile self-esteem, particularly when faced with competition (Geukes et al., 2017), and this fragility is thought to account for certain narcissistic behaviors such as aggression (for review, see Kernis, 2003; Zeigler-Hill, Clark, Ó 2018 Hogrefe Publishing
